BBWF – BERLIN. Turnover from the online video business “is peanuts”, according to Sushal Bijganath, MD of RTL Online, speaking during his keynote presentation at the Broadband World Forum. RTL is Germany’s main commercial broadcaster with five channels, an audience share of between 30 and 33% and a 44% share of Germany’s television advertising market. It enjoyed a “pretty easy situation” three years ago but now faces “the challenges of broadband to traditional broadcasters”.
RTL has embarked on three different online ventures to test the waters: RTLnow.de, Clipfish.de and N-TVplus. RTLnow is an online VOD service, which was initially launched as a paid-for offer but is now advertising- supported. Clipfish.de is a German clone of YouTube to extend the RTL brand to younger users and with N-TVplus the all-news channel is experimenting with enhanced information and interactivity for online viewers of the streaming web-TV site. Bijganath warned telcos that online video might not be the big revenue generator many hope for.
More information about RTL’s online experiences in next week’s issue of New Television Insider.
